Total Retail Sales of Catering in China in 2005

Catering¹ trade in China in 2005 maintained a high speed increase, and total retail² sales reached RMB888.68 billion, up by 17.7% on a year-on-year basis, keeping a two-digit growth for 15 years running and 4.8% higher than the increase of total retail sales of consumer goods, accounting³ for 13.2% of total retail sales of consumer goods and contributing 17.4% to the growth of total retail sales of consumer goods. And the net increase amounted to RMB133.6 billion compared with that in the previous year. Total sales tax in 2005 hit RMB48.878 billion with a year-on-year basis of 17.8%. Catering trade entered into a new stage in utilization⁴ of foreign investment and newly approved 894 foreign investment projects in 2005, down by 1.23%, the commitment reached US$1.041 billion, up by 6.71 and the actual use of foreign investment reduced gradually, hitting US$282 million, down by 34.51%